Hummus Bros enters into administration

Mediterranean restaurant group Hummus Bros has gone in to administration with the closure of its six sites.

Its London restaurants in Soho, Holborn, St Paul’s, Exmouth Market, Gray’s Inn Road and Eastcheap have all shut their doors.

In an announcement posted on its website and social feeds last night, the company said it had struggled with a “perfect storm of rising costs, reduced demand and over-supply in the market”.

Hummus Bros was founded by Cambridge University graduates Christian Mouysset and Ronen Givon in 2005 and served soups, salads, desserts and hummus bowls with topping such as beef stew; sautéed chicken; and falafel, with pitta bread.

The group tried to diversify off the high street by catering for events and running canteen pop-ups for companies such as Google and Goldman Sachs, but it was not enough to save the business.

Hummus Bros wrote: “The combination of the pound falling after the Brexit vote which pushed up the costs of our raw ingredients as well as property rents and business rates going up ever higher, make the high street a very difficult place to operate in at this time.

“For the last 12 months, we explored ways to pivot away from the high street and investigated opportunities of working in canteens of large corporates as well as taking on vans which can operate in street food markets and festivals. We also worked with a specialist to help us launch a supermarket product in one of the major UK operators.

“Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, the business didn’t generate enough cash to keep running until we changed course so, very reluctantly and sadly, we had to close the business.”

Ben Woodthorpe and Simon Harris have been appointed joint administrators of Hummus Brothers Limited.